Conservation
and Recreation Division

 

For Immediate
Release                                                  September 17, 2008

 

                   

 

HARPERS FERRY — A single-vessel boating accident
on the Mississippi River near Harper’s
Ferry Tuesday sent an Oelwein woman to the hospital with unspecified injuries.

 

Edna Shields, 68, was thrown from a boat driven by her
husband, John Shields, 74, when the flat bottom fishing boat struck an unknown
submerged object. The collision knocked the motor handle from John Shields’
hands, sending the boat into a spin and ejecting the woman. The boat then ran
over the victim, cutting her with the prop. She was taken by Harpers Ferry
Rescue officials to Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital, and later airlifted to Gundersen Lutheran
Hospital in La Crosse, Wis.

 

Reports indicated the accident happened around 2:15
p.m. in the McDonald Slough area of the Mississippi River
near Harper’s Ferry. 

 

State conservation Burt Walters, who is investigating
the accident, said the woman sustained non-life threatening injuries. He also
said life jackets were in the boat but were not being worn at the time of the
accident. He pointed out the outcome could have been worse.

 

“She was a very lucky woman,” he said. 

 

-30-

 

For more information, contact Burt Walters
at 563-880-0108, or Alan Foster at 515-210-6435.

 

 

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